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“He Can’t Even Hide It”: Fans Call Out Joey Barton’s Racist Attack on Alexander Isak

Alexander Isak, Joey Barton, Liverpool, Racism In Football

Joey Barton, the former Newcastle, QPR, Manchester City, and England midfielder, has never been one to shy away from controversies. Be it as a player or as a pundit, Barton has always been involved in incidents that have landed him in hot water.

Barton is no stranger to racist and sexist remarks. During his Newcastle days, he was also accused of racially abusing Gabby Agbonlahor in a match against Aston Villa in 2008.

Talking about Newcastle, Barton seems to have a personal issue with Isak, after the latter’s ugly departure from the club Barton captained once upon a time.

Back in September, just days after the Isak to Liverpool transfer saga had unfolded, Barton criticized Isak, stating “that b*stard should be booed in every stadium”.

He went on a long tirade, making his unhappiness known about how he viewed Isak’s behavior towards Newcastle:

If Alexander Isak got injured, Newcastle would pay him his salary in full for the entire duration of his contract. So if that’s the loyalty of a football club to a player, then where is the player’s loyalty to the club? Alexander Isak will still get the same salary if he gets injured.

From an investment point of view, you’ve shown everyone that contracts are worthless. Secondly, I say to those who praise him, who pat him on the head, he should be booed in every stadium for this behavior. He behaved like a proper b*stard, and I think we need to be mindful of the consequences of Isak’s behavior. Footballers are mercenaries.”

Now, he’s at it again, giving his “expert opinions” on Isak and his form while throwing a bit of casual racism in there.

In his latest controversial rant, Barton targeted Alexander Isak, blasting his start to life at Liverpool and making racist remarks as insults.

“Alexander Isak? F*cking Somali imposter. That’s not the fella who was at Newcastle. He was absolutely dreadful, absolutely awful. To the point where if you just landed from outta space and someone said: ‘we paid €5M for him’, you’d go: ‘WHAT THE F*CK’ — never mind €150M! And on a six-year deal as well!”

Isak often gets called a Somali on Football Twitter because of his lean build, but that is light-hearted banter from fans. The hate and venom with which Barton called him a Somali and then added imposter to it, you can see Barton clearly meant it in a derogatory way.

In reality, Isak was born and raised in Sweden with Eritrean roots as his parents moved East Africa to Sweden. So a “pundit” would not be calling a Swedish player a “Somali imposter” unless there were underlying racist connotations.

The clip posted on TikTok featured Barton speaking on his Common Sense podcast, where he delivered a racism-fueled take on Isak.

Fans were rightfully outraged as they called out his blatant racist remarks –

“He can’t even hide it a little bit. Eii.”

“Someone just throw a brick at his face man. Disgusting weirdo”

“Barton goes overboard as usual. Isak had a rough night, but there’s no need for that kind of language to say a player underperformed.”

However, some chose to ignore Barton and his takes given his terrible track record as a human.

“Why does the football world still care what this criminal thinks? Every week getting ragebaited by a racist, abusive, mediocre psychopath.”

If you’ve been on the Internet for a long time, this won’t even surprise you

A few fans also called out his over-the-top nature to deliver the message he wants to give.

“All he has to say is eni aluko is a sh*t pundit and Alexander isak so far is a flop at Liverpool, instead he waffles on which then stems into borderline racism and sexism and then he complains when he gets in trouble with the law for hate speech?”

Isak has scored just 3 goals since his move to Liverpool. Despite his poor run of form, Joey Barton’s comments were simply unacceptable, and he needs to apologize, as there should be no place for racism in today’s world.

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